West Bank13 September, 20263 min read
Itamar Ben-Gvir And Israeli Settlers Storm Al-Aqsa, Saudi Arabia And Jordan Condemn
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Itamar Ben-Gvir stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque under occupation police protection. Hundreds of settlers stormed the Al-Aqsa compound, performing Jewish rituals.
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Ben-Gvir and settlers at Al-Aqsa
Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and groups of settlers breached the courtyards of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque and performed Jewish rituals in its eastern area under tight guard by Israeli occupation police, as Arab governments and Palestinian authorities issued condemnations. Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Ministry condemned the intrusion into the mosque’s courtyards in the strongest terms, calling it a flagrant violation and provocation of Muslims worldwide. Jordan warned against attempts to impose new facts on the ground and to divide the mosque temporally and spatially, stressing that there is no sovereignty of Israel over Jerusalem and its holiest sites.
The Jerusalem Governorate reported that 796 settlers breached the Al-Aqsa precincts on Sunday morning, accompanied by 80 others under the guise of “tourism,” amid warnings of rising movements by Jewish groups to impose new rituals ahead of what is called Yom Kippur. In parallel, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, along with several ministers and thousands of settlers, breached the Western Wall Plaza under tight guard, turning the Old City into a military encampment.
Netanyahu’s tunnels visit
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited a labyrinth of tunnels below occupied East Jerusalem on Saturday, and he released videos and photographs on his official Instagram account documenting his participation in Jewish “Selichot” prayers at the Western Wall, known as the al-Buraq Wall to Muslims.
Netanyahu said in a video, “Well, we are in the tunnels at the al-Buraq Wall. It is moving to touch the rock of our existence.”
The Palestinian Jerusalem governorate reported that about 570 settlers had stormed the courtyards of the Al-Aqsa Mosque by 10am local time on Sunday, and it said the settlers performed Talmudic rituals and “epic prostrations” to mark Yom Kippur.
Hamas condemned the incursions in a press statement published on its official Telegram channel, saying that the storming of the tunnels and excavations beneath the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque and the al-Buraq Wall “represents a blatant attack on the identity of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and its status.”
Ahmed al-Hila, a political analyst specialising in Middle East affairs and the Arab-Israeli conflict, told Al Jazeera that Netanyahu was using religious symbolism to try to secure his political survival ahead of October’s general election.
West Bank clashes and arrests
In the West Bank, an Israeli settler was killed from injuries sustained in a shooting near the Halamish settlement (Nveyeh Teshuv), and the Israeli army announced the capture of the assailant. The same report said the Israeli army freed prisoner Qadri Samara from the town of Badu after he was found injured in a Ramallah hospital. In Salfit, settlers began early this Sunday to raid the courtyards of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque under the protection of Israeli forces, and the Jerusalem Governorate’s media director Omar Rajoub said about 100 settlers entered Al-Aqsa and performed Talmudic rituals.
The Palestinian Red Crescent said its crews in Salfit dealt with two injuries from a settler attack, one with a knife in the thigh and another head injury, and it said the injured were transported to hospital. The Jerusalem Governorate also said that Netanyahu and a number of Israeli ministers breached the Buraq Wall at a time when “Israeli forces turned the Old City into a military barracks to protect the settlers as they passed toward the occupied Buraq Wall.”